Appeals court orders new trial for Luerkens in Marion stabbing death

MARION - The Iowa Court of Appeals has ordered a new trial for a man found guilty in 2015 of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death.

In a 17-page ruling, the Iowa Court of Appeals ordered that a jury should have been allowed to consider the insanity defense for Nicholas Luerkens, 34, who was convicted of the first-degree murder of Lynnsey Donald, 29.

'The District Court erred in denying the defendant's request to submit an insanity defense instruction to the jury,” the ruling states. 'We reserve and remand for a new trial.”

Donald was killed by Luerkens on April 21, 2015, in the parking lot of a Hy-Vee in Marion. Authorities said Luerkens stabbed Donald 32 times. He later turned the knife on himself and said he wanted to die, according to witnesses.

Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden said Wednesday he is 'deeply disappointed” by the Court of Appeals' ruling.

'I have been in contact with the Iowa Attorney General's Office that is handling this appeal,” Vander Sanden said. 'They have indicated they are going to file for further review of this court of appeals decision to the Iowa Supreme Court.”

Luerkens filed a notice of defense of insanity and much of the trial focused on his mental state, according to the appeals court ruling. Luerkens' parents said that his mental state declined when he started taking Paxil, a drug prescribed to treat depression and anxiety.

'He lost his way,” Cameron Luerkens, Nicholas' father, testified during trial, according to the ruling. 'He didn't know right from wrong.”

A family friend that was a mental health worker also recommended that Luerkens be committed based upon his behavior before the murder.

Testimony was also presented that Luerkens suffered from clinical depression and severe alcohol use disorder. Toxicology reports showed that he had cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, alcohol, THC and methorphan in his system at the time of the killing, the ruling states.

The state, however, presented evidence that Luerkens was aware of what he had done and the ramifications. An officer testified Luerkens 'appeared to be lucid and coherent” when they spoke at the scene and at the hospital. Luerkens also wrote in his journal about his plans to kill Donald.

When the case was ready to go to the jury, Judge Mitchell Turner said he found Luerkens' defense team did not offer sufficient evidence to present the insanity defense to the jury. The jury subsequently found Luerkens guilty of first-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence.

In their ruling, the appeals court said the jury should have been allowed to consider the insanity defense.

'(T) he question before us is not whether Luerkens was criminally insane but whether, after viewing the evidence in a light favorable to the defendant, substantial evidence exists in the record to present the insanity defense to the jury,” the ruling states.

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